Tales of the Wild and the Wonderful

But, though rank and its polished distinctions were strange in the village of N—, the superiority of talent was felt and acknowledged almost without a pause or a murmur. There was one who was as a king amongst them, by the mere force of a mightier spirit than those with whom he sojourned had been accustomed to feel among them: he was a dark and moody man, a stranger, evidently of a higher order than those around him, who had a few months before settled among them: he was poor, but had no occupation—he lived frugally, but quite alone—and his sole occupation was to read during the day, and wander out unaccompanied into the fields or by the beach during the night.